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Girls: 10 Things We Learned

If your only insight into the life of a 20-something New Yorker was TV sitcoms, you'd be forgiven for thinking it was all a bit of frivolous fun coloured by rent-free flats, bottomless brunches and cosmopolitans on tap with a twist of philosophical “I couldn’t help but wonders". It all seemed too good to be true, because it was. Thank god for Girls; the show that millennial women everywhere welcomed for finally painting a picture of modern life with a realistic, slightly misshapen, brush.

Courtesy of Sky Atlantic

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From badly-lit sex scenes to unlikeable characters to showing why friendships in your early twenties are never smooth sailing, Lena Dunham’s masterful portrayal of young women today was widely praised for its refreshing honesty. By meddling whimsical comedy with insightful commentary on more serious topics such as consent (see season six, episode three), Dunham's unfiltered writing has been nothing short of revolutionary. Ahead of the series finale airing on Monday, Vogue takes a look back on the nuggets of wisdom Girls has given us over the years.

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Best Girls Quotes

Lena Dunham

13 Apr 2017

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Girl code is an urban myth

The age old rule states that dating a friend’s ex is unacceptable - “that’s just like the rules of feminism”, right? Not quite. The first to go against the grain is Marnie, who has a sort-of relationship with Ray, shortly after he dated Shoshanna. Then there's Jessa – the self-declaring "Jezebel" who falls in love with Hannah's longtime on-again, off-again boyfriend Adam.

Courtesy of Sky Atlantic

Don’t get distracted by free snacks

Writers love a freebie. Nowhere was this better proved than in season three’s episode, "Free Snacks", where Hannah gets a job writing advertorials for GQ, in which the most inspiring thing turns out to be the free snack room. However, despite the seductive perks – not to mention the fact that her boss is Jenna Lyons – Hannah sticks to her guns, telling her colleagues “she’s, like, a writer writer” and concludes that in order to be the kind of journalist she wants to become, she must leave a cushy salary - and free Sun Chips - behind.

Courtesy of Sky Atlantic/Craig Blankenhorn

Millennials really are self-obsessed

From prioritising pretentious exercise classes over boyfriends to indulging in two-hour long massages to manage her stress levels, Marnie Michaels might as well have invented the phrase “first-world problems”. Though intensely irritating, watching Marnie's blatant narcissism and self-saturation (she even has an online therapist) is an abrupt wake-up call, reminding us that missing aerial yoga once in a while really isn’t the end of the world.

Courtesy of Sky Atlantic

Nudity isn’t necessary, it’s realistic

When Girls first came out, one of the most talked-about aspects was the ample amount of nudity and specifically, Dunham’s own fearlessness to strip off in the role of Hannah, even in nonsexual contexts. While many applauded the authenticity that this no-holds-barred approach added to the raw quality of the show (notably missing in preceding sitcoms like Friends and Sex And The City), others were critical, citing it as unnecessary and crude. When asked to explain why Hannah “is often naked at random times for no reason” at a press conference, Dunham defiantly justified its importance, calling it “a realistic expression of what it’s like to be alive”.

Courtesy of Sky Atlantic

Our parents are people too

Throughout the show, the four girls have their fair share of parental ups and downs: Hannah’s mother goes missing in one episode, her father confesses that he’s gay after decades of marriage, Shoshanna’s parents clash at her graduation and Jessa doesn't even speak to her mother. We haven’t figured it all out, but neither have our parents - and that’s kind of comforting.

Courtesy of Sky Atlantic

Nothing says "I'm a grown-up" like throwing a dinner party

Forget filing your own tax returns, the true mark of adulthood is hosting a savoir faire dinner party. However, with a few things inevitably lacking (money, a dining table, a dishwasher, more than one set of cutlery), throwing a successful soiree is quite the millennial feat. The struggle is effectively portrayed in several episodes – there’s the takeout taco party in the first episode of season three, which had us cringing at Adam’s deadpan silence amidst the self-absorbed ramblings of Marnie and Shoshanna. And who could forget the fateful dinner party in the series pilot thrown in Jessa’s honour, whose absence leads to Hannah showing up at her parents’ hotel room high on opium tea?

Courtesy of Sky Atlantic

Never underestimate the power of dance

Tensions are running high between the foursome in season three when they take a trip to a Hamptons beach house. After a few too many G&Ts, an explosive four-way row ensues that has Shoshanna telling the others that they treat her “like a cab driver”, Hannah retaliating by telling her that she's “a little un-stimulating” and making the tragic admission that the four of them “haven’t had any real fun together in the last two years”. How do they resolve their longstanding issues? With a series of jumbled, feebly attempted dance moves performed whilst they wait for the bus to take them home. The lesson? If in doubt, boogie it out.

Courtesy of Sky Atlantic/Mark Schafer

What goes up and away, usually comes down and returns

They’re a fairly itinerant bunch, these girls: Hannah’s migration to Iowa barely lasts one season; Shoshanna sticks it out in Japan for just a few episodes; and Jessa gets kicked out of rehab almost as quickly as she arrives. Manhattan is the centre of their universe – and even though season six’s penultimate episode hints shows Hannah moving into a new apartment upstate, we suspect it’s all hearsay. Her heart belongs in New York City.

Courtesy of Sky Atlantic/Craig Blankenhorn

Roommates come and go like furry Gucci loafers

As the series goes on, the girls go through roommates like backless fluffy mules. First it’s Hannah and Marnie, then it’s Hannah and Elijah, then Hannah and Adam and Hannah and Elijah, again (with a bit of Fran in the middle). You know what they say: if you can’t align, don’t sign the dotted line.

Courtesy of Sky Atlantic

Friendship conquers all, kind of

In the penultimate episode it seemed that all was lost between these four, now estranged friends. In the words of Shoshanna: “We can't hang out together anymore because we cannot be in the same room without one of us making it completely and entirely about ourselves". In fact, the last time we see all four girls together is shortly after their explosive row at Shoshanna's engagement party - how are they reeling from the spiteful words they've just exchanged? By dancing, naturally. They might not be happy families by the end (Jessa and Shoshanna do not feature in the series finale), but after six seasons of insipid bickering, self-absorbed abandonment and sleeping with each other's ex boyfriends, would it really be Girls if they were?